KEY POINTS:
Telarc's Direct Stream Digital technology is justly celebrated and two of the label's recent releases take advantage of its unique presence and potential to thrill.
A new Brahms German Requiem, with Robert Spano conducting the Atlanta Symphony Opera and Chorus, makes for sumptuous listening.
But then the same musicians' 2004 disc of the Berlioz Requiem created the perfect template - offering unflinching brilliance when the composer lets loose with the big forces, but treating the quieter moments with the utmost sensitivity.
While the Brahms score may not supply the same speaker-shattering moments as that of the French composer, there is a richness here, even in the subdued opening which leads to the dramatic entrance of the 200-voice choir.
Inspirational choral singing, especially at the lower end of the dynamic scale, underlines every detail of Brahms' setting - from the flashes of joy in the first movement to the final blessings of the last. Even when the Atlanta singers are at full voice, orchestral detail is never sacrificed, right through to the most delicate flicker of harp.
Marius Kwiecien's strong baritone effortlessly navigates the third movement, albeit with a vibrato that is only a little less distracting than that of soprano Twyla Robinson. But even if Robinson's voice is a little ripe in Ihr habt nun Traurigkei, compensation comes in the keen shading and phrasing of the surrounding woodwind.
From Teutonic fare to a taste of the Orient in downtown New York, as the Ying Quartet give us Dim Sum, their collection of recent American Chinese composers.
This is contemporary music that is spruce and approachable, from Tan Dun stirring up enticing rhythms in his Drum and Gon to the folksong-like fluency of Chen Yi's Shuo.
The Yings are virtuosi and Telarc presents them appropriately, especially in Vivian Fung's obsessive Pizzicato, which explores every sound the players can make, sans bows.
Two recording premieres stand out; a whimsical 95-second shot of colour from China's first avant-gardist, Ge Gan-ru, and the lingering mysteries of Lei Liang's Gobi Gloria, with its extraordinary evocations of traditional Mongolian throat-singers.
* Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem (Telarc CD 80701)
* Ying Quartet, Dim Sum (Telarc CD 80690) both through Elite Music
